For reviving the Ronald Shannon Jackson thread, and talking about this composer whom had thought of as an instrumentalist, primarily... we can blame Hugo for putting this into my head to impose on y'all. Another name. Henry Threadgill. (Yeah, it's hard not to say "Henry MOTHERFREAKIN' THREADGILL. But I'll control myself).

Here's a guy who did not come up through Ornette Coleman, but whose music shares a lot with that of some of those who did. That said, he's also sui generis, just playing and working and scuffling in Chicago for a long time. Henry Threadgill. He plays alto sax and flute; mostly is known as a composer and bandleader. I was listening to him a lot in the 90s (though he really came up in the 70s). He's still around. He writes really beautiful things, sometimes really noisy things, crazy-dense things, super grooving things... often all of that at once.

I thought of him because of discussing guitarists "with" other guys on the Ronald Shannon Jackson thread. And this features a guy named Masujaa, who plays really amazing stuff on here; but this is a big band piece, the guitar is not the point. One thing that makes it sound like it has a lot in common with Ornette and company ("harmolodic music") is exactly the use of the electric guitar with all the horns.

Tuba is sick, too. Marcus Rojas, playing what you'd usually have a bass doing.

Henry Threadgill put out LOTS of great recordings. The one that caught me was called "Too Much Sugar for a Dime"; and particularly the first tune, which is called "LIttle Pocket Size Demons". Turn it up.

There's a cover of it on a recent piano trio record by Vijay Iyer. Amazing that it can be done at all in that format... and it's spectacular, too. But the original... kills me every time, too! Thanks for showing up to say so DasBeav.

Threadgill in 2001 released two recordings, one with an electric band called Make a Move (the band, not the recording). The other an acoustic band called Zooid. I bought the Make a Move record, which I think is great -- one of the better things he did after "Too Much Sugar..."

Here's a tune called "Don't Turn Around".

I'm not sure (have to look it up) but I think the guitarist was a young Liberty Ellman, who is a really interesting composer, himself.

That's cool, DasBeav... Air really deserves their own thread. I don't have those records. By the time I started looking for them, they were hen's teeth. But now they're up on youtube. The internet is TRIPPY. (Cue old man's voice).

The first video I considered embedding is from the same record, really awesome... and particularly so because of Steve McCall's drumming being both 1920's New Orleans march and some avant-garde freakish unidentifiable thing at the same time. "Ancient to the Future" as another band of similar ambitions put it. I picked the one I did because of Threadgill in particular... all three of those guys are really worth listening to, though.

All of which is me typing too much. But that is to say... there's a bunch on youtube to explore.

Reply Post

“This is the official website of the Mixed Martial Arts llc. Commercial
reproduction, distribution or transmission of any part or parts of this website
or any information contained therein by any means whatsoever without the prior
written permission is not permitted.”